BASF broke ground on a new resin and electrocoat (e-coat) plant at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park in Shanghai. With its operation scheduled to commence in the second half of 2015, the plant will help to address the increasing demand for high quality coatings solutions in various growing industries, notably the automotive industry, in Asia Pacific.

“Through this project we demonstrate once again how we make customers more successful,” said Dr. Albert Heuser, president Greater China and Functions Asia Pacific, BASF. “As part of our Asia Pacific strategy, we aim to produce locally 75% of what we sell in Asia Pacific. By implementing this project, we are taking an important step towards our strategic goal and at the same time, serving an important market need in China.”

This new resin and e-coat plant will be located adjacent to another new BASF automotive coatings plant, which will start operation in the second quarter of 2014. The close proximity of these two plants will allow for more synergies and efficiency.

“With this new resin plant we will be stepping up our commitment to China even further. The new facility, which is literally next door to our new coatings plant, is a key component to further strengthen our local footprint and to respond to our customers even quicker. It will be a world-class resin and e-coat plant using the latest production technology for the manufacturing of advanced coatings,” said Peter Fischer, senior vice president, Coatings Solutions Asia Pacific, BASF.